Unexpected
by KTstoriesandstuff
Summary: From his birth to his role in the Mockingjay Revolution, Beetee Wright's life is full of unexpected turns and circumstances. Ultimately they lead him to the woman he loves and to overthrow the tyrants who take everything he holds dear.


Beetee Wright was an unexpected citizen of District Three. His parents, 42 year old Alia and 45 year old Benjamin Wright married late in life spending many years building and improving the hardware and computing factory. They imagined a life of being a childless older couple focused on their careers when Alia came home from the doctor's office glowing and expecting a son. Beetee's dark skin stood out among the pale hued faces of the other children in the nursery. His mother and father both had light caramel skin as a result of their distant relatives migrating to District Three from Eleven before the Dark Days.

As an only child, Beetee's curiosity and intellect were eagerly fostered by Mr. and Mrs. Wright. Astonishing everyone in the factory, he wrote his first line of code while with his father after his first day of kindergarten. Sometimes his parents wondered if his drive to succeed in school came from self consciousness because he stood out from the others. His milky brown skin visually separated him apart from his peers. Yet his distinguishing characteristic became his grasp of technology and concepts of electromagnetic concepts.

He was an unexpected tribute at age 16. As part of the factory management class, he hadn't required tesserae. Living a life of borderline luxury, he and his parents shared a three room top-floor apartment. Unlike many children in the district, Beetee had his own room. The largest bedroom of the house was the Wright family study where all three family members would gather to work on their inventions. With only five slips in, Beetee felt somewhat immune to the Reapings, and viewed Reaping Day as a day of spending a useless hour away from his studies and inventions. "Beetee Wright." His name rang out through the crowd. Holding his head high, he walked to the stage. Though his peers knew who he was, no one volunteered.

In the arena that was purely grassland, Beetee did not die as a Bloodbath tribute like his mentors feared. Instead, he hid in the tall grass and found a cave where he went to work on his traps. First his traps involved tying pieces of twine to thick stalks of grass and wheat. Then his sponsors sent him the battery and wire. Emerging from the fields to the cornucopia, Beetee's tan was more apparent, his eyes darkened along with his skin as he watched four tributes die in his electric trap. He was an unexpected Victor, but he did not relish the fame. After Parcel Day, he locked himself in his new house in Victor's Village and worked on his inventions alone.

After losing twenty tributes to the bloodbath as a mentor, he had an unexpected tribute. Wiress Carpenter was a seventeen year old shy girl who barely spoke. Resignedly, Beetee thought of her as a bloodbath tribute though she would discuss robotics and advanced physics with him after the chariot parade, training, and the training scores. Her training score of seven brought an unexpected glimmer of hope to him. However, that hope was dashed as he helplessly watched Wiress stand on her platform for a whole thirty seconds humming a song while the bloodbath raged. He only dared to breathe as she seemed to come to before running toward the rocky cliffs of the arena with nothing but the clothes on her back. For the first forty-eight hours of her games, she sat under a rock ledge, knees to her chest rocking and humming tunes to herself. Her next forty-eight hours of the Games consisted of using rocks, sticks, and rope stolen from a fallen tributes' backpack to build traps. Her traps took out half the Career Pack and four other non-Career tributes who remained. A gift of a high-voltage battery, wire, and remote control brought Wiress victory as the remaining Careers tangled in her trap. She was the unexpected Victor who emerged from the arena comatose and 80% burnt from the lightning that struck the arena as the Gamemakers' attempt to eliminate the genius tribute from District Three.

Beetee Wright was her unexpected comfort. He never left her side as she lay in a persistent coma for two months only to endure three more months of excruciating burn treatments that included painful cleanings, dressing changes, and skin-graft surgery. Holding her, he gazed into her eyes and reminded her of her beautiful mind. After eight months in the hospital, her skin was polished enough that makeup could hide her scars. Throughout her postponed Victory Tour, Beetee held her hand spoke to the Districts in incomplete sentences.

Wiress received an unexpected surprise when Beetee knelt down in front of the District Three Patent Office holding a stainless steel ring that would fit on her delicate pale finger. "I'm - I'm broken -"

"Yes." Beetee said. "But beautiful to me." He finished placing a warm brown hand on her pale cheek. "Wiress Carpenter, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life by your side." A small smile spread across Wiress' face as she accepted the ring. Warmth spread through her body as he embraced her and pulled her in for a gentle kiss.

The Wrights were the unexpected leaders of the rebellion after the 75th Hunger Games. After twenty years of coaching children in the arena only to have one come back, they knew they must use District Twelve's moment of outsmarting the Capitol to the nation's advantage. Together they calculated how much political and espionage force was needed to take down President Snow and the Capitol.

As Beetee lay in the hospital after losing his companion, comfort, love, his wife for 20 years - his WIress in the arena, he learned her death was the unexpected turning point for District Three's rebellion. The people had enough resolve to overpower the Peacekeepers. The Capitol's forces didn't stand a chance against robotic weapons and electric traps set at nearly every corner. A large portion of the Peacekeeping force was lured into a factory where the Wrights' inventions were made before the citizens torched the building chanting Wiress' name.

This turning point gave him the unexpected energy to work tirelessly on the propos and technological logistics the rebellion needed. Forcing himself to work through physical and emotional pain, he broke through the Capitol propos again and again.

He spent his time after the revolution in an unexpected career path. Many people thought he would work under President Paylor repairing Panem's infrastructure or developing new peacetime technology. Instead, he found himself as a physics teacher at his and Wiress' old school: the District Three Engineering Academy. Teaching twenty-four children basic physics year after year brought immense happiness to Beetee. Using himself in his motorized chair as a test-subject, he laughed along with his students during class experiments. Though his life had taken many unexpected turns and had its immense highs and painful lows, he had an unexpected cheerfulness, because he saw how the pieces fit together to give Panem and the future generations of his and Wiress' district a future.


End file.
